Solved Install DirectX 9.0c that can pass the window's logo test

Install DirectX 9.0c that can pass the window's logo test; I need to digital signature to do so because it won't install!!!

Lookin' for the geeks forum, because I sure haven't figured this part out.So here's the situation:

I tried to install DirectX 9.0c two times from two separate download locations and files. Both installations failed with the error message of, "The software you are installing has not passed windows logo testing to verify its compatibility with Windows XP. This sofware will not be installed. Contact your system Administrator."Just because, I installed it three more times. But with the same disappointing results.

What is a system administrator, and how do I contact them? What do they do? And will this help to solve the problem?

Jolicloud: Wow Jolicloud,you've got a gold medal, 3 silver medals, and like 20 bronze medals dude! 872 posts! Holy smoke man, your rockin'. You have so many posts you have to keep clicking the next button just to see them all. Way to go dude: the medals!!

Anyways, that's what I thought -- that Googling would be faster, until was at it for hours and wasn't able to find a solution: that's why I'm here. Because I couldn't geek out the solution; I thought I could figure it out, and almost did -- several times in fact, and had come really close.Jolicloud, thanks for also including a link. I appreciate that. That fixed it. Your great! Thanks for your help bro!!!

Riider: The reason for this is because I didn't know who the manufacturer of DirectX 9.0c was, and so I downloaded it from 2 different locations in hopes of solving the problem. And one of the locations was from microsoft, but the screen didn't look the same as the link that Jolicloud gave me a link to. Anyways, I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working and thought that I had the correct program already, its just that I needed some kind of additional thing that could provide the digital signature so that it would install!!!

LMiller7: Yes I am the owner of the computer and am not logging on as a guest or on another logon account. I didn't know what this meant. But this is only importaint in regards to the response that the computer gave me, which now doesn't make any sense. Because the computer said that inorder for you to fix the problem, please consult the system administrator. So what I've figured out now is that the computer was telling me to consult myself so I that I can figure what the problem is....

Tubesandwires:: Thanks Tubesandwires, I didn't know that you could get to the directX diagnostic box by typing that into the run command. That's a lot faster than how I've been doing it. I've been getting there through system information, which is definitely slower. I'm running XP SP2. I didn't want to go with SP3 because I've heard its buggy. So I don't want to go with SP3 unless I absolutely have to. But that's interesting that DX9.0c is built into it -- that's kinda cool. But ya, you did have a valid point about how, if I was running SP3, that no matter how many times I tried, it would never install...because it's already built in!!! Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your input and I have learned something.

All systems are back up and running. The terminal is back online. We have been stranded on this distant world for several days. The aliens here on this world seem to be friendly and have helped us to repair our ship.

We are now ready to engage the hyperdrive engines. Bring us up to warp speed. We can now return to the Gamma Quadrant, in Starsystem 4, on Starbase 213.Beam me up Scotty.

Problem Solved:Went directly to the manufacture's site and got a fresh copy directly from the source.

"...I didn't know that you could get to the directX diagnostic box by typing that into the run command"

The ability to do that has been built into Windows since the first version of Win 95.

There are lots of other things you can type there to go directly to something.

e.g. typing msinfo32 goes to System Information in any version of Windows Win 95 and up. .....

The Microsoft Update or Windows Update web page, on the Microsoft web site, does NOT offer any NEW security or critical updates for XP found by doing an Express search, and Automatic Update in Windows does NOT install any NEW security or critical updates updates for XP the same as the ones found by doing an Express search there, unless XP has had the SP3 updates installed in it.

There are some Microsoft programs that you CANNOT install in XP unless the SP3 updates have been installed. ....

This is probably the most frequent reason people have problems while installing or after having installed SP3 updates...

NOTE that sometimes the resident module(s) of anti-malware programs - a part that runs all the time scanning for suspicious activity - will interfere with the proper installation of third party software, or major Microsoft updates that cannot be installed automatically by Automatic Update, the software will not install properly, and you may get no indication of that at all while installing the software.To avoid that possibilty, you should always DISABLE the resident module(s) of anti-malware programs, BEFORE you install third party software (software other than most Microsoft Updates, etc., that did not come with Windows ), especially when it's a major or complicated software package.E.g. if you are using the free or paid version of AVG, you should disable the Resident Shield in AVG's 's settings in Windows (in AVG 2012 that's done under the title AntiVirus). In Norton (Symantec) products, there may be several things you need to disable, or set so they don't load for a specific short amount of time.If you don't know how to do that, tell us which anti-malware software you are using.When you are sure the software has installed correctly, re-enable the resident module(s).

See Response 6 http://www.computing.net/answers/wi...starting at "If your XP CD does not have SP3 updates included, the best time to load them is right after you have installed Windows from scratch....".....

Wow, Tubesandwires, you responded back to me even though I've solved the problem. That's cool!

At first, I didn't really like the big bang show, but now I'm starting to like it. Did you see the episode where he got the 9 cats? What about the one where he used an electric hand buzzer to shake his friends hand?

Anyways, no I didn't know that they had it built into windows 95. But if they have it built into W95 and all the OS's after that, then why would you still need to install DirectX when installing some programs? That doesn't make sense.

Run command: yes, true -- there are lots of things that you can type there, but if you get to the system information box, it is one step slower than from the place where you want to go, which is the Dx diagnostic's box.But, nonetheless, it is nice to know and I'll write that one down to use later. Thanks.

You do have a point there -- a Windows update probably could have solved my problem from the research that I've done, but I didn't want to do an update because it slows my computer down when I do, uses up limited and essential hard drive space which I'd rather have for myself (I don't have a terabyte hard drive!), the boot time is increased, and sometimes the computer goes into limbo during an update so that I can't even use it while it is doing so!!!

Until just recently, I wouldn't have agreed with you about not being able to install new programs with SP3. And then I ran into this problem, so now I know that your right, but I'm not talking about the Dx 9.0c program.

I did not want to install SP3 because I have heard it is buggy. And I don't want to install it unless I absolutely have to. But I didn't know that that has been what has caused errors: that because your running SP3, some programs can't be installed.

If it was a true MS program, you wouldn't need to worry about security programs causing you problems, so I don't see this as an issue. But I appreciate the concern about this subject, as I have encountered this phenomonen before with other types of programs that aren't malicious.

My XP CD does not include the SP3 updates. But this doesn't matter to me, because if I wanted them, I know how to install them even though they are not included on the disk (internet). But that is good to know about the part the best time to install them is right after a fresh install. Thanks for the help bro!!! And it was nice chatting with you.

P.S. When I first saw the TV show title before I watched it, I thought "the Big Bang Theory" was going to be about some kind of science show and I got all excited. Oh well, I guess its still good: fact versus fiction.

"At first, I didn't really like the big bang show, but now I'm starting to like it.""P.S. When I first saw the TV show title before I watched it, I thought "the Big Bang Theory" was going to be about some kind of science show ..."

Same for me. It seems to appeal to a lot of people, including my 85 year old Ma, who doesn't like a lot of comedy programs. I figured James T Kirk might like all the trekkie references in it.

"But if they have it built into W95 and all the OS's after that, then why would you still need to install DirectX when installing some programs?"

For 2000 and previous, they originally come with a lower DirectX version. Some newer games, programs, and video adapters require a newer DirectX version to be installed than those Windows versions came with. Win 95 to 2000, or at least Win 98 Gold (original) version to 2000, can be upgraded to the 9.0c version. (I have never used Win 95, or 2000, or ME myself, but I have worked on other people's computers that had it / them.)

The updates for DirectX 9.0c are probably bug fixes for problems with certain games - if you don't use a game that is affected by the bug(s), you don't need to install the updates

You can't install DirectX 10 or higher in XP and below.

If your video adapter doesn't support a higher DirectX version, or if a higher version has not been installed in Windows, or if you can't install a higher version in the Windows version, whatever DirectX version you have automatically substitutes features supported only by the higher DirectX version with a simpler version of the features, or the feature only the higher version supports is not substituted with anything and doesn't work at all - you still have video, regardless of that. If a game or program requires a higher DirectX version, most of the DirectX features are supported by the lower version in any case - the game (usually) or program still works - it just can't do the fancier DirectX features that only the higher DirectX version supports.

There may be some newer games and programs that refuse to install unless you install at least the DirectX version they were designed to use. If you're considering buying a newer game or program, or in any case, check it's system requirements. If it requires DirectX 10 or higher to be installed, you may NOT be able to use it in XP for that reason, however, if XP is listed in the system requirements it should work in XP in any case.

"....I didn't want to do an update because it slows my computer down when I do, uses up limited and essential hard drive space...."

Are you an impatient person, as are many people these days?

Going by your computer's specs below your user name in the first post,

- your computer may have come with 2000 or lower on it originally - if so, it wasn't intended to be used with XP.

- your cpu speed is relatively slow, and you would benefit from more ram.

- XP will perform much better if you have at least 1 gb of ram installed, or more. That makes a lot more difference when you have a relatively slow cpu.

- if you are using onboard video - a video adapter built into the mboard - your ram will work better when a program benefits from a higher max data transfer speed if you use an AGP or PCI-E X16 video card instead of the onboard video.When you're using onboard video the max data transfer speed of ram is as much as halved because the ram in the mboard is being shared with the video. Installed an AGP or PCI-E x X16 video card usually automatically disables the onboard video.

- Installing a faster cpu will help, if you can do that, but it's relatively hard to find them on the web for older computers if you don't have one.

Downloading the update(s) uses a small amount of your cpu % time and not much memory. Similar applies for installing it (them). Some updates are large, so it takes longer to do those things, but most aren't huge. Some updates need to finish installing after the computer is restarted, that slows down how long it takes for the desktop screen to fully load and for the hd activity to subside so you can do anything without having to wait, but when you restart the computer next time and after there's no significant difference as to how long it takes Windows to be "ready".

Many Microsoft updates replace existing data with new data, so the net result is not the size of the original data + the size of the update.

Programs that are not running, files that aren't being accessed, cannot slow down your computer. The amount of drive space data takes up on C, assuming that's the partition Windows was installed on, has no effect on the performance of Windows, unless there's less than about 10% free space left on that partition, with the exception that programs that must access a lot of the data on the partition, such as defrag, or anti-malware scans, will taker longer to finish the more data there is on the partition.

There are many reasons your computer might be running Windows slower than it used to run, but that almost always has nothing to do with the Windows updates.If you want to know about those reasons, just say so. E.g. When you first start up your computer on a particular day, there are programs that run in the background that will slow down how long it takes Windows to be "ready" so you can do anything without having to wait, but when you restart the computer after that, Windows is "ready" in much less time. .......

The most important reason for installing the SP3 updates is if you don't install them, you're a lot more likely to be vulnerable to malware or hackers because the newer security updates have not been installed.

The chances are VERY GOOD that if you DISABLE your anti-malware software's resident modules from running BEFORE you install the SP3 updates, you will have NO problems installing them, and NO problems after having installed them. In any case, while installing the SP3 updates, you can choose to keep the files on the hard drive that are necessary to un-install them - if you do that, you can always un-install them if you do have problems.

SP3 updates are integrated into Windows when you install them. They don't run unless you happen to be using something the SP3 updates have upgraded.

I said...

"There are some Microsoft programs that you CANNOT install in XP unless the SP3 updates have been installed."

As far as I know that applies only to certain Microsoft programs and updates.

E.g. This is the highest update you can get for DirectX 9.0c, as far as I know - it requires that the SP3 updates have been installed:DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installerhttp://www.microsoft.com/download/e...

"My XP CD does not include the SP3 updates."

The vast majority of the people who have XP on their computer don't have the SP3 updates integrated into the CD, or into the original software installation on their brand name computer, or into the Recovery disks for a brand name computer. The highest updates I have on my XP CDs is SP2 updates - I even have one with no SP updates at allIt's relatively easy to make yourself a "slipstreamed" burned CD-R CD from the contents of your own CD and integrate the SP3 updates into it - the directions for how to do that are found on many places on the web. You can do that for any XP version except for the (XP) MCE 200x versions. .

That's funny, your 85 year old grandma watches it, Guess its kind of popular. But ya, like you said, the Big Bang Theory 'is' a comedy; so I guess how could anybody not like it. If you want to talk about the real big bang theory and the physics of the expanding universe, I could send you a private message. Did you see the episode where they saw Data and got an autograph? And wasn't it funny where they got a new mint in the package never been opened star trek toy and he opened it? And then had the dream about the star trek character telling him to open it? I've seen a little bit of star trek reference other than that, but not much, although there was the live long and proper bit.

"You can't install DirectX 10 or higher in XP and below."

I don't know why you say this because I installed Dx 10 on my computer just recently and I'm running XP? Maybe its because I'm running SP2? And I have even heard that they have a Dx 11 for the XP version, though I haven't been able to find a working copy of it, but my research indicated that they have it out! But I didn't know that you couldn't install Dx if your video adapter didn't support it -- that's interesting!! Or it installs, but the extra features are not included?

Ya, I 'always' read the system requirements. I have found that this is a very importaint key element to the whole process!

I'm not really an impatient person, but when the updating process takes a half an hour, it can be discombobulating. Here is the example that I am talking about: "updating process step 1 of 8". Because I already have to wait a half an hour for security updates, and sometimes an hour for a security check. But the main issue is really that I only have a 40 Gig hard drive, and I need all the space I can get for the things that I do on it. Some programs and games take up a lot of space. I also have a negative impression (dislike) in general about the updates , so I avoid them. However, if I was running a top of the line computer with CPU and a max hard drive, I might run the updates; but even then, I would update only as I chose, when I wanted, and not let the computer do it whenever!!

I have 2 computers. One of my computers is much faster. But the other one is really slow. The slow stone age computer already has a "really long" boot time, in part due to installed programs. And it has been from "experience" that on this slow computer, when updates were 'fully' installed, that the boot time was almost twice as long -- we're talking about almost 10 minutes! You say that updates don't take up that much space? Well, I'll tell you what, when the slow computer had all the updates, the size on the hard drive was around 4 Gigs!!! And when I got rid of all the updates and started from scratch, the computer's performance skyrocketed, and it was "actually usable". And then when I showed the computer to a friend of mine that is an expert on computers, who had had the computer before me, he asked, "how did you do that (the computer's performance which was great -- even fantastic -- compared to how it was before when he had it)?". That is how I know that updates suck and are no good for low end computers!!!

That's why you also make sure before you install the program that it will running on the OS that you are using when you look at the system requirements!!! I have to admit, upgrading my computer would be nice, but I'll have to wait to do that until later, but yes, that is a performance issue...

"When you're using onboard video the max data transfer speed of ram is as much as halved because the ram in the mboard is being shared with the video."

I knew that it helped, but I didn't know that it helped that dramatically!!!

Yes, some day, I want to figure out how to build a computer from scratch. But, even installing a new CPU chip is one step toward this process! I have taken out the CPU chip before -- out of another computer -- to figure out how this is done. Yet I'm still unsure as to the 'heat sink' part of it -- is this some sort of low strength glue? And you put the CPU back in place by fitting it in and locking the lever in place the same way you took it out -- even with the glue? Where do you put the glue and how much do you use? If you want to talk about computer repair or building a computer from scratch, you can respond back, or if you know anything about it...

"Programs that are not running, files that aren't being accessed, cannot slow down your computer."

That seems to be true, and does even sound logical. However, whenever you install a program, they sometimes state, "close '***ALL*** other programs before proceeding with the install". Although I have to admit that it is recommended, and they are not sure whether an open programs are taking up CPU. But some programs are running that you are not even aware of, or even internet and otherwise checks and otherwise that run in the background without you knowing... As another example, if programs are on the startup list, they will automatically boot up with your computer and are already running, so some programs are running that you didn't know were running!!! This CAN slow down your computer!

That is true that the amount of drive space that is taken up cannot effect your performance, unless your not talking about CPU performance, but are talking about your performance in being able to have the ability to install more programs on it!!! Because a lack thereof can result in you not being able to install ANY more programs, esential or otherwise: "you do not have enough disk space to perform this action" -- "your install was cancelled...". Let alone trying to "update" windows with no hard drive space, which would result in failure, and would not allow you to do it: "undo action".

I have heard that defraging your computer is good and that it can boost your RAM memory. But its been my experience that when I have performed the defrag before, not only did it take ONE FULL DAY!!!, but it also added 300 MB of additional space that it took up on my hard drive... So I am tempted to use it, but I shy away from actually doing it when I remember what happened. It seems to been a wasted time and add extra hard drive space for extra RAM trade off.

No, my computer's not running slower than it used to run, but it has been my previous experience that a low end computer's performance suffered "because of" windows updates specifically. And I know this because there were no other programs installed on it "except" the updates after a fresh OS install!!! But I am not currently running windows updates now, nor have I ever got them on the computer.

"there are programs that run in the background that will slow down how long it takes Windows to be "ready" so you can do anything without having to wait..."

Yes -- that's exactly what happens, and we're talking about 10 minutes of waiting, plus another 10 minutes on top of that if I have to reboot!

Na, I could get the SP3 updates if I really wanted them, but I don't. But that is an interesting idea about including on the XP CD. I never thought about that.

Installing as much ram as you can will help A LOT when you have a relatively slow computer. (I don't recommend installing more than 3 gb for a 32 bit operating system - all versions of XP are 32 bit except Pro 64 bit)

"But the main issue is really that I only have a 40 Gig hard drive..."

XP will run fine on a 40 gb drive as long as the Windows partition is not too full.

When the partition Windows was installed on has less than about 10% free space, everything in Windows will run slower, the less free space below that, the slower Windows will run.

Get yourself a larger hard drive, - or when it's a desktop computer - install another hard drive

In most cases you DO NOT have to install programs that did not come with Windows on the same partition Windows was installed on. You can choose a Custom installation or similar rather than an Express installation or similar.In that case only a tiny bit necessary for the program and your personal files for the program are installed in or loaded on the partition Windows was installed on. You can store data that isn't a program - music, movies, videos, documents, etc. - on any hard drive partition in any case.

You can use free software available from the web site of one of the makers of your hard drives to clone the entire contents of the original drive to a larger drive.

"I have heard that defraging your computer is good and that it can boost your RAM memory."

Defragging was a useful way of improving the performance of Wiindows 3.0 and 3.1 and Dos when computers were much slower, much slower than your computer even, but running it in Win 95 and above can't improve the Windows performance any more than about 10%, and even then that diminishes in a short time as the hard drive data gets fragmented again, the less free space on the Windows partition, the faster than diminishes. It CANNOT boost the performance of the ram.

"But its been my experience that when I have performed the defrag before, not only did it take ONE FULL DAY!!!, but it also added 300 MB of additional space that it took up on my hard drive.."

There are lots of programs that cause Defrag to re-start when they are running when you have loaded Windows normally - the more times that happens, the longer it takes Defrag to finish.If you load Windows into Safe mode, then run Defrag, it takes a lot less time to finish.Also, the more free space that's available on the partition Windows was installed on, the less time it takes to finish.

Running Defrag CANNOT add data to the drive, overall. If anything it decreases the amount of space the data takes up by a little bit because the data is stored more efficiently. There may be temporary files made by Defrag that are still there after it has finished, but if so they will probably be deleted the next time Windows is Restarted before Windows has fully loaded.

As for some of the other things you've said in your last post, believe what you want to believe, but in my experience they're not right. .....

Extra ways to increase the free space on a too full Windows partition.....

I didn't know that -- guess all the older people are the smart ones; though it has been heard of that young people have been found to be genius's. I have always run into the situation where I tend to be on the same intellectual level of older people because I am always talking to them to get smarter. Some people might think that this is a waste of time, but when I become wiser and my IQ becomes higher, then I will say, who's laughing now?

"DirectX 11 Windows Vista And XP (Fake)"

You say that Dx 11 is fake? So what do you mean -- that it isn't out yet? That it hasn't been released yet? They are in the process of developing it?

Yes, I have heard that installing more RAM can help, but I have also heard that implanting too much RAM into the cyberware device can cause your electronic tubes and wires to slow down. I'm not quite sure if this is true, but someone who knows a lot about computers told me this. So 4 gigs could be too much -- is that why you said 3 gigs instead of more, or were you thinking about the number of sockets available?

But the question is, how much would 2 gigs of RAM help in a stone age computer, performance wise (+% wise)?

I didn't know that XP was a 32 bit operating system. Hmm, how interesting. That's new for me. I knew that they rated color this way, as in 16 bit color.

Trust me, I can't wait until I upgrade the hard drive on this baby, but in the mean time...

Yes, I have heard of the cloning program, but that involves another OS that I'm not familiar with, or the program itself on a disk with an OS. I also really not very fond of linux, though I have heard that it has excellent security. Some day I want to try out the cloning process, if I can figure out how to. And yes, I do have a bigger hard drive available, a 160 Gig HD, but it was made for a desktop, not laptop. And I know that there are adapters to link them up, but as it is currently, it is too much of a hastle to proceed with this plan. I am waiting to get my nice upgrade in the form of a desktop, which will have this HD. There is something already on the 160 HD at the moment as well.

A defrag can add +10% performance huh. I have never heard the part about running it in safe mode before. But so far, I have come to realize that running the system in safe mode seems to have more applications that I once surmised, and is more useful than I had thought initially. In the beginning, safe mode seemed to be pretty much useless, and I have never "needed" to use it for any reason to be able to fix something. But anyways, its good to know that it takes less time! Thanks. I have heard it before, but I forgot -- what is the difference between CPU and RAM ability. CPU does... and RAM does...

"There may be temporary files made by Defrag that are still there after it has finished, but if so they will probably be deleted the next time Windows is Restarted..."

Hmmm, I did think to check to see how much HD space I had after I rebooted it. If I do proceed with the defrag, I'll remember to check the HD space before and "after" a reboot to see how benefical that it "actually" is.

"As for some of the other things you've said in your last post, believe what you want to believe, but in my experience they're not right."

You might be right. I don't know everything. But I "do" have some preferences which I tend to stick to, beneficial or not; and one of these is definitely not the update. Even if the update is truely helpful in every way, I still dislike having to use it. Its just one of those things. Some people have a favorite color. And some people don't like to eat spinach. I don't like to eat spinach, but I do like pizza. I don't like installing updates, but I like talking to you.

P.S. I didn't mean to discombobulate you -- I just like to do things a certain way. Everyone has there differences. Some people are democrats and others are republicans.

You have to have spare time available to be able to answer on this web site regularly - older people tend to have that. Older people have experienced more, and many of them have a lot of accumulated knowledge. It's good to hear you're interested in tapping into that, but it saddens me that some younger people are not interested in learning more from older people, at least not when they're younger.

""DirectX 11 Windows Vista And XP (Fake)""

"You say that Dx 11 is fake? So what do you mean -- that it isn't out yet?"

Read the info at the link below that title in response 11.

"Yes, I have heard that installing more RAM can help, but I have also heard that implanting too much RAM into the cyberware device can cause your electronic tubes and wires to slow down."..... "So 4 gigs could be too much -- is that why you said 3 gigs instead of more....."

My user name is Tubesandwires partially because I used to fiddle with electronic things that had vacuum tubes in them rather than discrete transistors or ICs (Integrated Circuits). When I took a 3 year electronics course in high school, new electronic devices had discrete transistors, ICs were a very recent thing, and if you wanted to become an Electronics Technician, you were repairing mostly things that had vacuum tubes in them.

If you have a 32 bit operating system and you have installed 4gb (or more) in the

mboard, the amount of that ram available to Windows and the user is4gb minus the amount of ram your devices require or have.E.g.- minus the amount of ram shared with onboard video if you're using that- and/or - minus the amount of ram your dedicated video card installed in a slot has.If you have more than one video card installed in a slot, it would be minus the ram for all of them. (and = Some mboard main chipsets have Hybrid video capability. If you have a PCI-E X16 video card installed in a mboard slot that is supported by that feature, it's often the default for both the onboard video and the video on the card to work at the same time, unless you change default bios Setup settings. In that case it would be minus the ram for both of them.) - minus the amount of ram your sound adapter has, if that applies - e.g. sound cards installed in a mboard slot often have ram- minus the amount of ram any other devices have, other than hard drives and optical drives, if that applies.......

"...how much would 2 gigs of RAM help in a stone age computer...."

I haven't done any benchmarks or similar, but more ram results in an obvious improvement in performance, especially on a slow computer. A fast computer (3.x ghz cpu or faster) will perform okay with 512 mb for XP, but a slow computer performs MUCH better when it has 1 gb of ram or more.

"I didn't know that XP was a 32 bit operating system. Hmm, how interesting. That's new for me. I knew that they rated color this way, as in 16 bit color."

They're two different things, but for both it has to do with binary numbers.

For the video, it refers to the max possible different shades of color that can be produced. Older video adapters could only produce a smaller number of shades of color, e.g. CGA - 4 colors (2 bit; 2 to the power of 2), EGA - 16 colors (4 bit; 2 to the power of 4), the original VGA - 256 colors (8 bit; 2 to the power of 8), etc. The more colors a video adapter produces the more processing capabilty it takes to do that from the video chipset.

"Yes, I have heard of the cloning program, but that involves another OS that I'm not familiar with,...."

The ones I talked of are all Windows programs. You install it on the original hard drive. There has to be enough free space on the original hard drive to install them plus at least the minimum amount of free space they require in order to run, and you can copy the entire contents of an existing drive's data to a larger drive with them.

"I do have a bigger hard drive available, a 160 Gig HD, but it was made for a desktop, not laptop."

For a laptop you need a larger laptop (2.5") drive of the same type, IDE or SATA - you either install it in an external drive enclosure, or use some other adapter that allows you to connect it to the computer such as a USB to hard drive adapter. Older bioses often don't recognize the latter. The computer's bios / main chipset must be 48 bit in order for it to recognize the full size of a hard drive larger than 137 gb manufacurer's bogus decimal size = 128 gb binary size, which is what all operating systems and most bioses report as the size. If the computer's mboard was made in 2002 or later, it's bios and main chipset supports that. Otherwise, all hard drives larger than 137 gb are seen as 128 gb.Also, SP1 or later Windows updates must be installed in XP.and already be integrated into the contents of the XP CD you use to install XP, in order for it to be able to recognize the full size of hard drives larger than 137 gb = 128 gb binary size.

"I have heard it before, but I forgot -- what is the difference between CPU and RAM ability. CPU does... and RAM does..."

The web masters of this web site DO NOT want you to copy the contents of HUGE files into topics on this web site, because they take up too much space on the servers(s), and most of the info in the file, or sometimes all of it, is useless to us regarding us helping people fix problems !

What you're supposed to do is to copy the file to a web site that allows you to temporally store a file, them copy a URL address link to where that file is on the web and paste that in a post.

(I DO NOT know how to do the former.)

( In the case of HighjackThis! log files. posting them here or providing a link to where they are on the web is something they don't want to see at all. There is no one who answers regularly on this web site that specializes in analyzing them. There are other web sites that do that. ) ..........

(FYI - my XP installation has no DXError.log file at all.I have never updated DirectX 9.0c in it.)

Apparently, if there is an existing DXError.log file, when DirectX encounters problems again, it appends (adds on) text to the end of existing text in the file

Your DXError.log file has THREE starting dates/ times.

12/17/11 19:08:07

The first ~ 25 lines

12/20/11 16:47:10

The next ~ 14 lines

You can ignore those ones in 2011 for your present problem. .

The remainder of the HUGE DXError.log file has entries

starting at 05/26/12 19:45:00and ending at 05/26/12 19:52:34

Then..

The specific errors for that session and when they occurred are listed at the end of the file for that session after the 5 rows of dashed lines

Some of the files named are obviously for a DirectX 9 version of some sort. .....

If you have restarted Windows since 05/26/12 (May 26 2012) then the contents of DXError.log have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with whatever your DirectX problem is now !

The DirectX 10 version you installed was NOT provided by Microsoft. If you have problems with it, Microsoft has no support for that third party version.

Click on the link below the line in response 11 Download DirectX 10 for Windows XPto see if they have any troubleshooting support.

Normally you can't un-install any DirectX version.If there is a listing for the third part DirectX 10 version in Add or Remove Programs, you may need to un-install that.

If you can't un-install it, the only thing you can do, that I know of, without having to re-install XP from scratch is to load a previous System Restore restore point with a date and time just BEFORE you installed that third party DirectX 10 version.

On my XP installation there's - one that has an older Modified date in C:\Windows.- 04/28/09 I'm guessing that date is when I last installed (XP) MCE 2005 from scratch - it has SP2 updates intergrated into it.

- one that has a newer Modified date in C:\Windows\logs - 10/21/10

RIGHT click on the file, select Properties, look at the Modified date.

If that date is older than when you got a DirectX error message, there is nothing in that file that relates to your present problem

Any line with dxupdate: DirectXUpdateInstallPlugIn()folder does not existdoes not necessarily indicate a problem

I knew that you could store info somewhere on the web but I don't know how to. Cloud is sort of like that. But if you have Cloud, its like having access to 5 computers or a terrabyte or two hard drive. But then again, if you had a terrabyte hd, why would you even need could? Maybe for a netbook or a small hd.

But that was a real shocker when I found out that you couldn't post a big reply in the box -- I've never ran into that before. It didn't even occur to me that that would happen!!!

That's a good idea to be able to look through the error log quickly and to actually be "able" to find something -- if there is anything that you can tell from it -- by looking at the dates. I didn't think of that. That is definitely a good idea, and very helpful.

"The DirectX 10 version you installed was NOT provided by Microsoft."

You say that the Dx 10 version is not by Microsoft? How can you determine this?

I looked in the Add/Remove Programs and Dx10 "is" there, but Dx 9.0c is not. So you can tell if it is or not by clicking on the link that you have provided in response #11 and if it works for trouble shooting support, then it is from Microsoft?

If a had Dx 9.0c installed successfully and a program required you to have Dx 7, would you still need to install Dx 7? Because I have ran into that issue before where I already had a higher Dx version installed than the one that it was asking for; although the instance that I am referring to is when I had Dx 10 installed and a program required me to have Dx 9.0c installed "before" I could install the program. However, for all the other programs that I've installed before, I always installed the lower version of Dx because I didn't know that you didn't need to. But then it asked me to have Dx 9.0c...

"running dxdiag to see if it finds (a) problem(s)."

How do you do this? When I go to the Dx information box (dxdiag), I clicked "all" of the tabs and down at the bottom it says there are no problems. So you get to the Dx log by looking in the Windows folder?

So that's how you read logs: you look at the date after the date occurred!!! So you can only see the modified date of a log by right clicking on the file folder itself, assuming that I can find the file in the first place (could you also see this by setting the folder options to view files as "details")?

Tubesandwires, wow, your a Electronics Technician? So things that have vacuum tubes in them are like tvs and monitors? So they used to have discrete transistors "before" vacuum tubes? So an IC is a transitstor? What does a transistor do -- it helps the electronic device to gain more power? 3 years of electronics in high school -- hay, they never offered electronics for us!

"mboard, the amount of that ram available to Windows and the user is 4gb minus the amount of ram your devices require or have."

So if you have two video cards plugged into two slots on your mboard, but they are not compatible with eachother (the video cards, like GeForce and Radeon for example. Note in this example that when there are two video cards, one is "not" an onboard video card built into the mboard, but that each has been manually put into a slot), would the amount of vram still be added to the amount of RAM that you have available? EX: if GeForce is 256 MB and Radeon is 64 MB, would you have 320 MB available instead of only 256 of vram? And extra vram adds to RAM available? And extra RAM can add to the vram capabilities?

"...but for both it has to do with binary numbers."

So 16/32 bit has to do with binary numbers? Is this because the Assembly Language is programmed with the binary code, in 0's and 1's?

There is a cloning program that runs in Windows? Your not talking about running it through VirtualBox are you? Because if your running through VirtualBox, then technically your running it in Linux. Do you happen to know the name of this cloning program? Have you used it? Is it easy to use, or is it one of those programs that is difficult to use and takes a long time to learn?

Yes, I can get a drive enclosure, but that takes up space on the counter top and an extra wire to get bumped. And, of course, that means that I have to go get one, as I don't currently have one. But like I was trying to tell you before, I was saving my 160 Gig for my new desktop upgrade which I plan to get someday.

Yes, I've ran into that problem already with the USB cord adapters plugging into an external device. The older laptop models/and supported bios that goes with it, does seem to allow/recognize these USB external devices upon boot, which can pose a major problem when dealing with tricky stuff like trying to reinstall an OS or fixing a shot computer!!!

Ya, its strange that a computer wouldn't recognize the full amount of space on a hd, and I remember when I first saw that, I thought that was strange.

So off the top of your head, you don't know what CPU and RAM is, real briefly? I know the general idea of what RAM is, but not what it does in terms of the computer and how it helps it. But RAM stands for Random Access Memory, and is different than ROM, which is Read Only Memory; much like the difference beween a CD-R and a CD-RW, where one can only read the information but not write to it, and in the other instance, where it can read it "and" write to it. So RAM is like "memory space". And CPUstands for Central Processing Unit, which is the intellectual brains or the computer, and has the architectural blueprint of what to do inside of it, whereas RAM is like the "wisdom" of the computer. The CPU has something to do with the number of cycles that the circuits do around the brain in a loop I think, such that the faster that the loop wavelength is, the faster than the brain can "think". Other than that, I don't see what this does for the computer.

I said"What you're supposed to do is to copy the file to a web site that allows you to temporally store a file,...."

I said "(I DO NOT know how to do the former.)" because I don't recall what you search for on the web regarding that. If you search using the right words, then the info about that is easily findable.

"....a real shocker when I found out that you couldn't post a big reply in the box..."

What I said was...

"The web masters of this web site DO NOT want you to copy the contents of HUGE files into topics on this web site....."

They have no objection to your posts being long, as long as they have info related to the topic. Their objection is the HUGE files "....take up too much space on the servers(s), and most of the info in the file, or sometimes all of it, is useless to us regarding us helping people fix problems !"

In this case, the entire contents of DXError.log are apparently useless for problems you had after May 26 2012, that you're having with the third party DirectX 10 version you installed. ......

"The computer told me to consult the Windows DirectX Error Log"

What error message were you getting that prompted you to copy the DXError.log file to this topic ?

Since you obviously have the third party version of DirectX 10 installed and working according to what you've said, any DirectX error message would be regarding that version. ....

""The DirectX 10 version you installed was NOT provided by Microsoft.""

"You say that the Dx 10 version is not by Microsoft? How can you determine this?"

DirectX 10See also: Direct3D 10, Direct3D and Windows Vista, and List of games with DirectX 10 support

Microsoft DirectX 10 A major update to DirectX API, DirectX 10 ships with and is only available with Windows Vista and later; previous versions of Windows such as Windows XP are not able to officially run DirectX 10-exclusive applications. Rather, programs that are run on a Windows XP system with DirectX 10 simply resort to using the code from DirectX 9.0c, the latest version for Windows XP computers,[26] although there are unofficial projects to port DirectX 10 to Windows XP.[27]

Will DirectX 10 be available for Windows XP?No. Windows Vista, which has DirectX 10, includes an updated DirectX runtime based on the runtime in Windows XP SP2 (DirectX 9.0c) with changes to work with the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) and the new audio driver stack, and with other updates in the operating system. In addition to Direct3D 9, Windows Vista supports two new interfaces when the correct video hardware and drivers are present: Direct3D9Ex and Direct3D10.

Since these new interfaces rely on the WDDM technology, they will never be available on earlier versions of Windows. All the other changes made to DirectX technologies for Windows Vista are also specific to the new version of Windows. The name DirectX 10 is misleading in that many technologies shipping in the DirectX SDK (XACT, XINPUT, D3DX) are not encompassed by this version number. So, referring to the version number of the DirectX runtime as a whole has lost much of its meaning, even for 9.0c. The DirectX Diagnostic Tool (DXdiag.exe) on Windows Vista does report DirectX 10, but this really only refers to Direct3D 10.

It's a third party version of DirectX 10. Someone has gone to the trouble of figuring out how to make a version of DirectX 10 for XP, probably by using mostly existing Microsoft DirectX files.Microsoft has no support for that DirectX 10 version for XP. If anybody has support for that, it's the third party source. ....

"I looked in the Add/Remove Programs and Dx10 "is" there, but Dx 9.0c is not."

I said in response 16....

"Normally you can't un-install any DirectX version."

...as in, there is NEVER a listing for it in Add or Remove Programs when it's the Microsoft supplied version.

"If there is a listing for the third part DirectX 10 version in Add or Remove Programs, you may need to un-install that."

Since you DO have DirectX 10 version listed there, it's NOT a version supplied by Microsoft, and you have the option of un-installing it if you have problems with it. ....

"If a had Dx 9.0c installed successfully and a program required you to have Dx 7, would you still need to install Dx 7?"

NO.

DirectX versions are backwards compatible with earlier DirectX versions. Ignore any messages about installing an older version of DirectX than is aready installed. If it asks you if you want to install an earlier version of DirectX, don't. In most if not all cases, if a program installation is properly written, if tries to auto install a older version of DirectX, it is NOT installed when it finds a newer version is already there in Windows. I've NEVER had a program install an older version of DirectX than what was already present in Windows. ......

""running dxdiag to see if it finds (a) problem(s).""

"When I go to the Dx information box (dxdiag), I clicked "all" of the tabs and down at the bottom it says there are no problems."

Then there were presently no problems found for your third party DirectX 10 version, at least not when you use Microsoft's built in dxdiag program.

"So you get to the Dx log by looking in the Windows folder?"

From response 17:

"...DirectX.log

On my XP installation there's - one that has an older Modified date in C:\Windows.- 04/28/09 I'm guessing that date is when I last installed (XP) MCE 2005 from scratch - it has SP2 updates intergrated into it.

- one that has a newer Modified date in C:\Windows\logs - 10/21/10 "

There MAY be info in that about you installing the third party DirectX 10 version, but I don't know whether there should be.

Apparently DXError.log, if it exists, is always in the C:\Windows folder. I DO NOT know whether your third party DirectX 10 version is supposed to make entries in that. ...

So that's how you read logs: you look at the date after the date occurred!!! So you can only see the modified date of a log by right clicking on the file folder itself..

When you hold your cursor over a file, the Modified date is shown.When you RIGHT click on a file, the date the file was Modified, Created, and presently being Accessed are shown. For files that were created brand new on the hard drive, the Created date is when the file was first created on your own hard drive. The modified date is when the original file was last modified. For a log file like your DXError.log that has entries made on more than one date, the Modified date is always newer than the Created date. .....

"Tubesandwires, wow, your a Electronics Technician?"

NO.The three year course I took in high school, if you had good grades for it, Which I did, could have been used to take one year off of an Electronics Technician course in provincial Technical schools or colleges; the course was normally three years at the time as I recall. I chose not to do that, and went to a University and and took Science and Arts courses.

The 3 year electronics course was only available at certain high schools that had technical related courses - I had to go on a school bus most of the time to that far away high school.

....

"So an IC is a transitstor?"

NO.

Discrete = individual. Integrated Circuits have anywhere from a few to millions or more transistors integrated into them. The cpu on a computer is a complicated example of the latter.

Look up transistors, Integrated Circuits, and CPU (Central Processing Unit) on the web.

"So things that have vacuum tubes in them are like tvs and monitors?"

The current thing then (I graduated from high school in 1970) was to have discrete transistors rather than vacuum tubes in new devices, but there were often some vacuum tubes in CRT TVs other than the picture tube because some things could not be done by discrete transistors yet. When you were repairing something, it was usually older, and often had vacuum tubes. The only computer monitors at that time were mono monitors for work stations for mainframe computers - there were no personal computers - that only large businesses, institutions, and the government could afford to buy. I don't know if those monitors had more than the usual one vacuum tube other than the picture tube back then.

"So they used to have discrete transistors "before" vacuum tubes?"

NO. The opposite to that.....

""...the amount of that ram available to Windows and the user is 4gb minus the amount of ram your devices require or have.""

See the info before and after that.

It all boils down to if you install a maximum of 3 gb of ram rather than 4 gb when the computer has a 32 bit operating system, you'll probably be able to use all of the 3 gb of ram, or the vast majority of it, for Windows use and the user's use.....

Any video card or onboard video adapter that works with the computer is compatible with it and the operating system. You can have more than one video adapter working at one time, but only one of them can be the Primary video adapter in Windows and in the mboard's bios. Both video adapters with NVidia and ATI video chipsets can be used on the same computer, but in order for two video cards to run in an enhanced mode, SLI for NVidia cards, Crossfire for ATI cards, the mboard's main chipset must be must be compatible with one or the other or both of those standards. In most if not all cases, AMD main chipsets support only Crossfire mode, NVidia main chipsets support only SLI mode. Some Intel main chipsets support both Crossfire and SLI mode, but only for two or more video adapters that support Crossfire mode, or two or more video adapters that support SLI mode. If you have a video card with an NVidia video chipset and one with an ATI video chipset installed in two slots on a mboard, both cards will work, but you can't run the video cards in the enhanced SLI or Crossfire mode.

Some mboards have more than one PCI-E X16 slot - more than one PCI-E X16 video card can be installed in those slots.

If you have two or more video cards that have a Nvidia video chipset, they can all run in SLI mode if the main chipset supports that. If you have two or more video cards that have an ATI video chipset, they can all run in Crossfire mode if the main chipset supports that.

If the main chipset supports Hybrid video, if the video card has a video chipset that is one of the ones supported, both the onboard video and the video on the card can be enabled at the same time. Otherwise, installing a video card in an AGP or PCI-E X16 slot causes the mboard's bios to automatically disable the onboard video.

Installing a video card in a PCI slot does NOT cause the bios to disable the onboard video adapter, if the mboard has onboard video. ......

""...but for both it has to do with binary numbers.""

"So 16/32 bit has to do with binary numbers? Is this because the Assembly Language is programmed with the binary code, in 0's and 1's?"

Data can only be stored by a "bit" on the data storage device being flagged either off - 0 - or on - 1 .The binary way of numbering is used rather than the decimal way because it's based on powers of 2, not 10. All data is stored a series of zeros and ones on the data storage device, in various combinations. ...

"There is a cloning program that runs in Windows?"

I said...

"You can use free software available from the web site of one of the makers of your hard drives to clone the entire contents of the original drive to a larger drive.'

ALL of those install on and run in Windows.

There are other ways of cloning a drive's contents, they may use Linux or some other operating system, they may require you make a bootable CD or DVD nrather than install the program in Windows, but that wasn't what I was talking about.......

"Yes, I can get a drive enclosure, but that takes up space on the counter top and an extra wire to get bumped. And, of course, that means that I have to go get one, as I don't currently have one. But like I was trying to tell you before, I was saving my 160 Gig for my new desktop upgrade which I plan to get someday."

You can clone the entire contents of your laptop 40 gb 2.5" drive to the 160 gb 3.5" drive, but that's useless effort for a laptop because you can't install the 3.5" internally in the laptop, and Microsoft does not allow loading an existing operating system installation of 2000 or higher from an external hard drive.

There is no problem of any computer that has USB ports recognizing the circuits inside an external drive enclosure - it's only the USB to hard drive adapters of other sorts that some bioses will not recognize.

There are other reasons why an external hard drive enclosure's circuits may not be recognized.

"So off the top of your head, you don't know what CPU and RAM is, real briefly?"

Of course I know what they are, but there's no need for me to explain that to you. There's lots of info about that on the web that you can look up yourself.

"But RAM stands for Random Access Memory, and is different than ROM, which is Read Only Memory;...."

You got that right.

".. much like the difference beween a CD-R and a CD-RW, where one can only read the information but not write to it, and in the other instance, where it can read it "and" write to it."

NO.A CD-Rom disk cannot have data added to or removed from it. A CD-R disk can only be written to once, although you can access the disk more than once in some circumstances and write data to areas that didn't have data on them previously. A CD-RW disk can be written to more than once, the data can be erased, and in some cases, if you use certain burning software, the CD-RW disk can be used the same way as a huge floppy disk - the data can be erased and something else written to the freed up space.

ROM memory data is stored on a specialized chip of some sort. It can only be read.In some cases the chip can be re-programmed with different data. Computer bioses have ROM memory, so do hard drives, optical drives, some other devices; it's a.k.a "firmware".

ROM memory data does not need power to what it's stored on to retain the data.

RAM memory data disappears when the power to the ram memory is removed. The data is usually constantly changing in ram memory.

"What error message were you getting that prompted you to copy the DXError.log file to this topic ?"

As you know, I said that the computer told me to consult the Dx Error Log. I did not know "how" to read a log, or, rather, "how" this would help me. I thought that there was a chance that you might know...

I do not have any problems at the moment, and Dx is functioning properly. Refer to response #8.

When I had the problem I was trying to figure out how this could help me. And, in the future, if I have a problem, I know that there are other types of logs; and so I could consult one of these. I have never used a log/read it, and have always been wondering how I could use a log to help me resolve some computer issue.

At the time when I looked at the Dx error log, it was completely "valid" as there existed a problem as yet unresolved, so reading it was "not" useless.

"There is no Microsoft supplied version of DirectX 10 for XP."

I did not know that, but it is good to know that the Dx 10 that I installed was from a third party. But that does sound logical that if it appears in the add/remove programs list, that it is not a valid Microsoft program. That's for the info!

Vista sucks. I don't like Vista. Its a memory hog -- that's why I don't run Vista. But eventually, I will be running W7. And I heard that W8 is going to come out soon.

Thanks for having me check to see whether there were any problems for Dx 10. That was a good idea! And under what version is installed, the Microsoft Dx information box says that Dx 10 is the current version.

If I was to clone the contents of my laptop onto the 160 hd, the file types are different. The current files are NTFS, whereas the 160 gig is running Fat32 files. And I have learned early on, when I switched from W98 to ME, and when it asked for a fresh install, what file type do you want, I went with a different one. That was when I noticed that ALL of my files on the previous file type were completely useless and unreadable!!! --As if they weren't even there. I might as well just have deleted them, that's how useful they were... So either I'm only going to be able to see the Cloned files successfully (and read them!!!), or I will only be able to see the 160 gig files...

I wasn't asking you what site to go to store info on, I was just jogging your opinion on what you thought about the new app called "cloud". Have you ever heard of cloud? What do you think about it? Do you like it? Do you think its useful? Useless? Only good for...

"There is no problem of any computer that has USB ports recognizing the circuits inside an external drive enclosure - it's only the USB to hard drive adapters of other sorts that some bioses will not recognize."There are other reasons why an external hard drive enclosure's circuits may not be recognized."

No, its specifically not a USB adapter problem, or another problem. I can detect the same hd on an external hd with a drive exclosure AFTER the "laptop" (not desktop. Not sure whether its because they make lesser Bios versions for Laptops versus Desktops) is turned on. However, and here is the problem, WHEN I turn on the laptop, the laptop does not "see" the external hd! My research has indicated that this is due to the fact that the laptop is running a older version of Bios, and a newer version would not do this! Therefore, to help to clarify this example to you, I will conclude with the summary of this example, which, in practice, I have actually tried several times; and so it has also been my experience of this with a hands on endeavor.

Example: I installed a OS on a external hd that is connected to the laptop via a USB cord. Then I turned off the computer. When I turned on the computer, the OS could not boot because the "Bios" didn't not recognize the USB port upon boot. Hence the black screen with a message instead.

I didn't know that RAM information disappeared when the computer was turned off! Interesting.

Since the contents of your DXError.log file in response 14 and 15 are useless to us, you should delete the contents of those responses, but you can't leave nothing in the post - leave behind something - e.g. just the first line, or a new short line. You can Edit any of your own posts on this web site, for a limited time, by clicking on Edit this message at the bottom of the post.......

"At the time when I looked at the Dx error log, it was completely "valid" as there existed a problem as yet unresolved, so reading it was "not" useless."

The file is valid, of course, but it's contents are useless. As I said....

"In this case, the entire contents of DXError.log are apparently useless for problems you had after May 26 2012, that you're having with the third party DirectX 10 version you installed."

The problems detailed in the log all occured before you installed the third party DirectX 10 version, starting at several different times. The date the file was Modified may still be on May 26.

""What error message were you getting that prompted you to copy the DXError.log file to this topic ?"""As you know, I said that the computer told me to consult the Dx Error Log."

That's a default message you get from Microsoft's versions of DirectX.

I have no idea whether your third party version of DirectX 10 will make entries in DXError.log - it hasn't so far - it may make it's own log file for it's errors.

If you only get DirectX error messages when you try using certain programs, the program has the problem - see the support / troubleshooting info for that program regarding DirectX error messages. .......

"Vista sucks. I don't like Vista. Its a memory hog -- that's why I don't run Vista. But eventually, I will be running W7."

Your subject computer doesn't meet the recommended minimum system requirements for Vista or Windows 7, which are the same. Windows 7 is merely what Vista should have been in the first place - they're at least ~ 90% the same, as in, Vista with SP2 (Windows) updates installed is at least ~ 90% the same as the original version of Windows 7 with no SP (Windows) updates installed.

As I said in response 9....

"Going by your computer's specs below your user name in the first post,

- your computer may have come with 2000 or lower on it originally - if so, it wasn't intended to be used with XP.

- your cpu speed is relatively slow, and you would benefit from more ram.

- XP will perform much better if you have at least 1 gb of ram installed, or more. That makes a lot more difference when you have a relatively slow cpu."

Vista and Windows 7 require a much higher minimum ram amount vs. XP, and even then Windows just barely runs as it should with the minimum amount. The same probably applies for Windows 8. .......

"If I was to clone the contents of my laptop onto the 160 hd, the file types are different. The current files are NTFS, whereas the 160 gig is running Fat32 files."

As I said in response 20....

"You can clone the entire contents of your laptop 40 gb 2.5" drive to the 160 gb 3.5" drive, but that's useless effort for a laptop because you can't install the 3.5" internally in the laptop, and Microsoft does not allow loading an existing operating system installation of 2000 or higher from an external hard drive."

- cloning the contents of the hard drive deletes all data on the destination drive before the data is copied, at least it does when you use the Windows program that you can get from the maker of one of the hard drive's web site that I described.

- Cloning = making an identical copy - the file system - FAT32 or NTFS - on the destination drive is the same as on the source drive after the data has been cloned. ......

There is no bios setting, or lack of a bios setting, that prevents a USB connected external drive enclosure from being detected, on any computer that has (an) integrated USB controller(s) / USB ports. All such computers have at least some USB ports that can supply the 500 ma current per USB port a USB connection to an external hard drive is required to have.

However, you may NOT be able to boot the computer fron a USB connected drive.

Older computers may NOT have the option in the Bios Setup of setting the Boot Order or similar so you can boot the computer from a USB connected drive, of any sort. I have several older computers that do not have that choice in the bios. In that case, you CANNOT boot the computer from a USB external hard drive, and you CANNOT boot the computer from a bootable CD or DVD in a USB connected external optical drive. However, if there's nothing else wrong that prevents it, the bios will still detect a USB external hard drive in an external enclosure, and so will Windows.

If you CAN set the Boot Order or similar so you can boot the computer from a USB connected drive,

- you CAN load an existing Microsoft operating system installation from an external hard drive if it's Win ME or previous.

- Microsoft does NOT allow loading an existing operating system installation of 2000 or higher from an external hard drive. You get a blue screen error message, that is generated by the Windows installation on the external hard drive.

- you usually CANNOT install Windows XP or 2000 from a Windows CD in a USB optical drive because the initial files loaded from the CD CANNOT recognize the PnP ID string of the USB optical drive model you're using. In that case, the Windows CD is seen as bootable, it loads, but all you see is a blue screen and nothing further happens.

- you CAN install Vista or Windows 7, and probably Windows 8, from a DVD that's in a USB optical drive.

Question 1:So what should I do about a hd that has both NTFS and FAT32 files on it, as an operating system can only read the files of one file type. And in the case of having all NTFS files, if I inserted a FAT32 file type folders disk, how would I be able to "see" it?

Question 2:If I was to clone a hd, the destination hd will be deleted right? So, as I currently have something on the 160 gig, nothing would then be left on it if I was to make a clone, excepted for the cloned image? And would I be able to get around this little inconvenience, if this is the case, by creating another partition to put the clone into so that the rest of the info on the hd is not trashed?

Question 3:I've been having problems with this one program that I'm running. It doesn't/hasn't done this for "any" other programs, just this one program in particular! Occassionally the program will crash and it will go to a BLUE SCREEN. I recieve some kind of error about how there is a problem with the ATIdvai.dll file. Before this error message for this particular thing, I have never experienced this type of system issue. Obviously it seems like it has something to do with the ATI video card, and so I thought that maybe it needs a ATI video card update.

So I tried to go to the ATI web site, and tried to get an update, but to no avail. Now I'm starting to get confused about whether it needs a driver. But that doesn't make sense because I already "have" a driver to enable video support, and I have been running the computer with many programs for a while with no incidents, and in device manager, the driver seems to exist with no error -- hence, there is no yellow triangle with an explanation point. How do I fix this? [Current unresolved problem that my computer is facing].

"Question 1:So what should I do about a hd that has both NTFS and FAT32 files on it, as an operating system can only read the files of one file type. And in the case of having all NTFS files, if I inserted a FAT32 file type folders disk, how would I be able to "see" it?"

"an operating system can only read the files of one file type."

Where did you get that idea from ?

The files are not FAT or FAT32 or NTFS - those three things are software file systems - ways of organizing the data on a disk or partition. Windows 2000 and up has no problem reading files on any source organized using those file systems.

I have, and often have had, computers that had hard drive partitions that were using either the FAT32 or the NTFS file system on the same computer.Flash drives and memory cards usually use the FAT or FAT32 file system on their partitions. Floppy disks use the FAT file system. Windows can also read the files on CDs and DVDs, which use the CDFS file system on them.

"Question 2:If I was to clone a hd, the destination hd will be deleted right? So, as I currently have something on the 160 gig, nothing would then be left on it if I was to make a clone, excepted for the cloned image? "

As I have told you twice previously in response 20 and 22....

"You can clone the entire contents of your laptop 40 gb 2.5" drive to the 160 gb 3.5" drive, but that's useless effort for a laptop because you can't install the 3.5" internally in the laptop, and Microsoft does not allow loading an existing operating system installation of 2000 or higher from an external hard drive."

If you have data on the 160 gb or whatever destination drive you don't want to lose when you clone onto it, copy it to elsewhere before you do the procedure.

"And would I be able to get around this little inconvenience, if this is the case, by creating another partition to put the clone into so that the rest of the info on the hd is not trashed?"

NO, at least not if you use the free cloning software I described. The software is a "crippled" version of software you normally have to pay for e.g. one of the two versions for Seagate, and the one for Western Digital drives, is a crippled version of Acronis software - you can only copy the entire contents of one drive to another drive, wiping out whatever data was originally on the destination drive. If you buy the paid version of the same software, then you can copy data from a partition on the original drive to a partition on the destination drive.

"Question 3:I've been having problems with this one program that I'm running. It doesn't/hasn't done this for "any" other programs, just this one program in particular! Occasionally the program will crash and it will go to a BLUE SCREEN. I recieve some kind of error about how there is a problem with the ATIdvai.dll file. Before this error message for this particular thing, I have never experienced this type of system issue. Obviously it seems like it has something to do with the ATI video card, and so I thought that maybe it needs a ATI video card update.

So I tried to go to the ATI web site, and tried to get an update, but to no avail. Now I'm starting to get confused about whether it needs a driver. But that doesn't make sense because I already "have" a driver to enable video support, and I have been running the computer with many programs for a while with no incidents, and in device manager, the driver seems to exist with no error -- hence, there is no yellow triangle with an explanation point. How do I fix this? [Current unresolved problem that my computer is facing".

What is the blue screen error message for the one program, and which program is it ?

E.g.

STOP: 0Xx00000xx (we don't need the stuff in brackets beside that)

A_TEXT_STRING_ALL_IN_CAPITALS

If there is problem file named, sometimes Windows can't tell you what the real problem is - it tells you the name of a file that is affected by the problem. That's likely the case when you only have the problem when you use one program. Games in particular tend to have more bugs in them than other software does and using them is more likely to produce an error message.

The ATIdvai.dll file is one of MANY files for the ATI video adapter. When you DO have a problem with a particular file for a video adapter, that usually doesn't show up in Device Manager in any case.

You have not told us which laptop make and specific model you have.You should tell us that.

The term CARD is frequently mis-used.

The ATI video adapter is probably NOT on a video CARD - a video CARD is removable - in most cases the video adapter on a laptop is built into the mboard and cannot be removed.

XP has the drivers for older ATI video adapters built into it. In that case, - when you look at the Drivers info for the ATI video adapter in Device Manager in it's Properties, it says they were provided by Microsoft, not ATI or AMD.

- when you look on the AMD web site for drivers, if you find anything at all for the video chipset, it's a legacy drivers version that is no longer being updated.

- if there is a legacy drivers version on the AMD web site, if you want to install those, you have to do the drivers installation a little differently than you would if they were not built into Windows. I can tell you how to do that.

SITUATION 1Tubesandwires, the reason that I asked you about the NTFS and FAT32 file format is because I am referring to a specific incident that I encountered one time. The situation was that I was running W98. The file format of the information was set to FAT32 when I originally did a fresh install of W98. I had saved files to the hd. I deleted W98. Then when I did a fresh install of the ME OS, I chose the NTFS, or had to, I can't remember; but NTFS was selected. When I looked at the information that had been saved to the hd under the FAT32 file format, what I saw was 20 entire gigabytes of file folders of nothing but "#FTHW#$T%$@@%GWERG%" type of information. This situation is what I am basing my question on.

SITUATION 2That's good to know that the demo versions of the cloning programs can't clone from or onto a hard drive. And I must have read the other part too quickly because apparently I had missed the part about not being able to do it because you couldn't plug it into an "internal" slot.I did know that made a difference! How very interesting. Thanks for the information about the demo cloning programs.

SITUATION 3Blue screen error message:I wrote it down somewhere and was looking for it to tell you, but I couldn't find it. I jotted a tid bit down in another place, hence the .dll file that I named to you. But the gist of what it said was to the tune of "this program has been abnormally terminated. Your computer has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time that it has happened, do this... Otherwise do this..." The power wasn't on, just the screen, so the computer wasn't even running! I've never seen that before!

The Program is a video game. Its name is Heroes of Might & Magic 4.

I cannot "cause" the error to happen, it just happens at random times, sometimes after hours of game play, and so I cannot tell you exactly what it says unless it either happens again or I find where I wrote it down. By the way, it doesn't happen every time that I play the game.

Windows ME and previous Microsoft operating systems other than NT cannot make partitions that have the NTFS file system, and cannot recognize NTFS partitions or files on NTFS partitions. Fdisk - the program that makes the FAT or FAT32 file system partitions in ME and previous - sees existing NTFS partitions as an unrecognized type - it can delete them but it can't read anything on them.

Whatever situation you had, you have not explained it correctly.

SITUATION 2

That's not what I said. You can use the software I described to copy the entire contents of the source drive to a destination drive, wiping out whatever data is on the entire destination drive, but you can't copy the data in just one partition on the source drive to only one partition on the destination drive because that feature of the software has been "crippled" - disabled.

They're not Demo versions - they're "crippled" versions that were provided only to the specific hard drive brand name. Some hard drive brands also support using the software with other brands that no longer have their own support web site - e.g. Seagate supports Maxtor hard drives too - the free cloning software can be used if the system has at least one Seagate or Maxtor hard drive that's detected by the software.However, the maker of the cloning software MAY have a similar Demo version that can be used with any hard drive brand.

You can't physically install a desktop (3.5") hard drive internally in a laptop, obviously, but you CAN install a laptop or solid state (2.5") hard drive or a desktop (3.5") hard drive internally in a desktop computer.An external hard drive connected to ANY computer that has an existing Win 2000 or higher installation on the hard drive inside the external enclosure is useless because Microsoft does not allow you to load an existing 2000 or up Windows installation from an external hard drive - you get a blue screen error message that's generated by the Windows installation on the external hard drive.

SITUATION 3

You need to copy down the STOP error string you get whenever you get the blue screen message.

"The power wasn't on, just the screen, so the computer wasn't even running! I've never seen that before!"

It's IMPOSSIBLE for you to get messages on the screen, other than from the monitor itself when you're using an external monitor, when the computer isn't running. When the blue screen message appears with a STOP error on it and stays on the screen, Windows has frozen, and in that case, you can't do anything except hold the power button in or down until the computer shuts off, or remove the AC power to the computer.

The problem in this case is probably caused by bugs in the game's programming.As I said above..."Games in particular tend to have more bugs in them than other software does and using them is more likely to produce an error message."

There may or may not be info on the game maker's web site about what you can do about the specific problem. Sometimes there is an update or patch on the game maker's web site for the specific game that fixes the problem.

If there is no solution found on the game maker's web site, if the problem is related to the video software, sometimes there's info about the problem with specific games on the maker of the video software's web site and there is a another drivers version you can install that fixes the problem, however, if the only drivers that are available are a legacy version that can't be updated, if loading those doesn't cure the problem, you can't fix the problem unless you can find a different drivers version for the video chipset elsewhere on the web.

It's well known that sometimes no matter what you do, you can't play the game on some systems without getting the error(s) - in that case you just can't play the game without getting the error(s). ....

If any video drivers are available for it on the AMD web site, they're a legacy version that cannot be updated.Dell may or may not have another version of the video drivers that can be installed.

If you want to try installing either of those, if available, you have to do the drivers installation a little differently than you would if they were not built into Windows. I can tell you how to do that.

SITUATION 1"Whatever situation you had, you have not explained it correctly."

Okay, I am going to explain this so that it can be understood better, though it will lack detail and be in a simplistic format:A) Both OS#1 and OS#2 are Windows OS's that are before XP1) I installed Windows OS #12) I put 20-80 Gigabytes of information on the hd under the OS #1format3) I deleted OS#1. Removed and not an "upgrade" selection [selection is available during the install process if previous OS is left on hd] to the next OS4) OS#1 is no the same operating system as OS#2. OS#2 is a Windows OS5) I did a fresh install of OS#26) The OS#1 is no longer running, nor is there ANY traces of the OS or its OS file folder. The 80 Gigs of information on the hd that were originally made by the OS#1 cannot be seen correctly when the computer is now governed by the OS#2 that is running. The 80 Gigs of info is seen instead as "sd87d9h4@I&JIJ&IJ&O*&*O"

SITUATION 1/ QUESTION 1If a CD is made with information that is run from a windows OS, can the information be able to be read by a different windows OS version?1) CD-R is burned with info while running Windows OS#12) CD-R is put in the hard drive of another computer that is running Windows OS#23) Can the files made from W OS#1 be read by W OS#2?a) If the files can't be read, would NTFS, FAT, or FAT32 be the reason?

SITUATION 2"An external hard drive connected to ANY computer that has an existing Win 2000 or higher installation on the hard drive inside the external enclosure is useless because Microsoft does not allow you to load an existing 2000 or up Windows installation from an external hard drive - you get a blue screen error message that's generated by the Windows installation on the external hard drive."

Thanks! Good to know

SITUATION 3"It's IMPOSSIBLE for you to get messages on the screen, other than from the monitor itself when you're using an external monitor, when the computer isn't running."

I did explain it correctly. No "normal" sound was coming from the computer, the fan was not on, and the computer appeared to be running on minimal power, only enough to power the screen, such that only the light bulb [monitor] was on. It is NOT an external monitor and is build "into" the computer [laptop]. Other than that, its hard to explain what I meant for the computer to appear like it was NOT on. "Normally" the computer always makes some kind of noise, AND the fan is running!

"When the blue screen message appears with a STOP error on it and stays on the screen, Windows has frozen, and in that case, you can't do anything except hold the power button in or down until the computer shuts off, or remove the AC power to the computer."

Okay, so I guess, technically, the computer was frozen. I didn't realize that it was frozen until you mentioned it. I didn't know that when you got the "blue screen" that your computer was frozen. When my computer has frozen before from other types of things, the cursor doesn't move and the terminal does not register any inputs, or process ANY information.

"You need to copy down the STOP error string you get whenever you get the blue screen message."

If I can't find where I wrote it down, I'll write it down again. The full message.

Guess I'll have to find the update or patch on the game makers site. I don't want to install different drivers. Besides, the drivers for the ATI card are built into XP.

Windows 3.0, and 3.1 (released in 1992) require that a Dos version be installed as well, and can only read FAT file system partitions.

Windows NT, the previous operating system that Windows 2000 and XP is partially based on, I'm not familiar with, but I know it can make and read earlier types of NTFS file system partitions, and FAT file system partitions, though maybe not FAT32 file system partitions, and the newer NTFS file system partitions 2000 and up uses.

In any case, if an operating system can't read the file system type on the partition, it detects nothing at all on that partition.

When you see what seems to be random characters for a file or folder, or the volume label of a partition, or for the model of the whole physical hard drive, something is not right that is causing the actual data to be interpreted improperly.

e.g.

- a ram problem, or a poor connection of the ram module to the ram slot contacts problem, but in that case, all partitions on the computer would have that problem. If you have other partitions on other physical hard drives that read find, that can't be your problem.

- a data cable connection problem.

I've personally seen that myself many times for IDE connected drives, and it's possible to have that problem with SATA drives (and legacy SCSI drives).

When the bios Setup displays the model, or on older computers, when the model of the hard drive is shown while booting the computer, that often has random characters rather than the proper model number too.

It is common to un-intentionally damage IDE data cables, especially while removing them

- the 80 wire ones are more likely to be damaged. What usually happens is the cable is ripped at either edge and the wires there are either damaged or severed, often right at a connector or under it's cable clamp there, where it's hard to see - if a wire is severed but it's ends are touching, the connection is intermittent, rather than being reliable. Another common thing is for the data cable to be separated from the connector contacts a bit after you have removed a cable - there should be no gap between the data cable and the connector - if there is press the cable against the connector to eliminate the gap.80 wire data cables are also easily damaged at either edge if the cable is sharply creased at a fold in the cable.

Try another data cable if in doubt.

80 wire data cables must have the proper end connector connected to the mboard IDE header - usually that's blue, but in any case it's the one farther from the middle connector on a 3 connector data cable.

Check your SATA data cables. The connector on each end should "latch" into the socket on the drive and on the mboard, or on the drive controller card - it should not move when you merely brush your hand against it near the socket - if it does, mere vibration can cause a poor connection of it - use another SATA data cable that does "latch", or tape the connector in place.(There is a slight projection or bump on one side of the outside of the connector that "latches" it into the socket - it's easily broken off or damaged)

The same thing applies for the SATA power connection.

- rarely, a problem with the hard drive's circuit board. In that case, no matter what, the data would be seen as random characters, if is seen at all.

I've personally seen that myself for one SATA hard drive. It's model showed up in the computer's bios Setup as random characters, but later on the bios did not detect it at all.

SITUATION 1/ QUESTION 1

If an operating system can't read the file system type on the partition, it detects nothing at all on that partition.

As I said previously...

"The files are not FAT or FAT32 or NTFS - those three things are software file systems - ways of organizing the data on a disk or partition."

In the case of CDs and DVDs they use the CDFS (CD file system).

It doesn't matter which operating system made them, the OS can see the files if it can read the type of file system the partition the files are on is using, but depending on the operating system, it may not be able to run the files or open the files.

SITUATION 3

""It's IMPOSSIBLE for you to get messages on the screen, other than from the monitor itself when you're using an external monitor, when the computer isn't running.""

Some external monitors display a message "no video signal " or similar when the monitor is on but the computer is producing no video or when the computer is not running. That's not possible for a built in display when the computer is not running.

The computer not running and the operating system not working properly are two completely different things. The operating system cannot run and it's impossible to get messages from the operating system, or the computer's bios, when the computer is not running.

Windows 2000 and up is set by default to automatically Restart when it encounters an unrecoverable error = an error it can't recover from.

If that has been disabled, you get a blue screen with a STOP error message instead of the computer Restarting automatically when Windows encounters an unrecoverable error.""When the blue screen message appears with a STOP error on it and stays on the screen, Windows has frozen, and in that case, you can't do anything except hold the power button in or down until the computer shuts off, or remove the AC power to the computer.""

Not all Windows blue screen messages have the STOP error on them - for the ones that don't, you can still do something, even if it's only pressing a key or moving a selection to another choice, etc. .......

E.g. for XP (and 2000)...

Win XP is set by default to automatically Restart when it encounters an unrecoverable error.

To have XP possibly display an error message you can investigate instead of the computer rebooting:

1. Click Start, and then right-click My Computer.2. Click Properties.3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery. 4. Under System failure, click on the small box beside Automatically restart to remove the check mark.5. Click OK, and then click OK.

If you can't get into Windows, or if you can but you can't use it for long enough to do that....

Remove any bootable CDs or DVDs you have in drives.

Boot the computer and starting very early, press F8 repeatedly, do not hold down the key, and when the "Advanced..." Windows loading choices menu appears, chooseDisable automatic restart on system failure.That will attempt to load Windows normally.

It's a one time thing - it only disables Restarting on system failure when you have selected it. .....

SITUATION 1"Another common thing is for the data cable to be separated from the connector contacts a bit after you have removed a cable - there should be no gap between the data cable and the connector - if there is press the cable against the connector to eliminate the gap."

On another computer, one that I had before, a P133 Desktop, my friend was manually putting in a RAM stick, and he wanted to make sure that he got it in, so I guess he pressed kind of hard and, "snap". I heard an audible "snap" sound, which could have been the mboard.

QUESTION 1If the mboard is cracked, what could this do to the computer? Will it still run?

REPLY 1I have never heard of a data cable becoming loose when others are pulled out. That is good advice: to check all the data cables after a data cable is pulled out, just in case one of them wasn't set correctly!

REPLY 2"80 wire data cables are also easily damaged at either edge if the cable is sharply creased at a fold in the cable."

I did know that those data cables can be damaged easily, thanks for telling me! Now I know why when I was hardware repair at a computer shop, that one of the basic procedures for referishing a computer was to switch out the data cables!!! I was wondering about that, but didn't really think about it at the time.

REPLY 3"I've personally seen that myself for one SATA hard drive. It's model showed up in the computer's bios Setup as random characters, but later on the bios did not detect it at all."

This is excellent advice for computer diagnostics.

REPLY 4When I get the blue screen, it does not automatically reboot. The error message stays on the screen in a "frozen" mode.For another situation in the future though, this is really good information though. Thanks!

SITUATION 2P333 Desktop. Not P133 where "snap" to mboard occurred. Internal hd. Don't use DOS 3.0 or 3.1. Recently changed from 1 Windows OS to another with a fresh install just before the problem was seen. What is the reason why 80 Gigs of information would be seen as, "SGR&HE&H(G)#_#*J)_W" when they remained on the same hd, but only the OS changed, from 1 Windows OS to another Windows OS? Answer: File created with <ME cannot be read by >ME OS in NTFS partition format.

QUESTION 2[So files that were put onto a disk with W98 cannot be read when the CD is put into a computer that is running XP NTFS partition format?]

I don't normally do this, but I'm not going to answer any more of your posts in this topic after this one. It's been taking up too much of my time. The original topic was solved long ago, sort of, by you installing the third party DirectX 10 version. I've already told you about what you can try regarding the DirectX errors you're getting for the game - I have nothing further to add to that. .........

"On another computer, one that I had before, a P133 Desktop, my friend was manually putting in a RAM stick, and he wanted to make sure that he got it in, so I guess he pressed kind of hard and, "snap". I heard an audible "snap" sound, which could have been the mboard.

QUESTION 1If the mboard is cracked, what could this do to the computer? Will it still run?"

The two latches at the ends of the ram slots should be moved so they're NOT straight up at the ends of the slot when you install the module, then the ram module should go down into the slot EASILY, unless he was trying to install it backwards, in which case the two notches on the bottom of the module were not lined up with the bumps in the bottom of the slot, and the latches at the ends of the ram slot cannot both be against the ends of the module like they're supposed to be unless you use A LOT OF DOWNWARD PRESSURE to force the module down and bend the mboard and the ram slot in the middle of the slot.

(If the computer is booted when the ram module is backwards in the slot, both the ram module and the circuits of the ram slot the backwards module is in are both fried instantly and can never be used again.)

It's extremely unlikely that would crack the mboard, but it might if the mboard did not have all the supports under the mounting holes for mounting screws in the mboard.

If he was trying to install the ram module backwards, it's a lot more likely the sound you heard was one of the latches at the end of the same ram slot breaking loose because it was under a lot of tension, or it came from the ram module's board.

If the mboard were cracked, there would probably be some conductive circuit traces that were cracked too. It's not possible to predict what the effect of that would be. At the very least the cracked traces would have an intermittent connection, and they MAY produce problem only when the temp inside the case is higher, or only when it's room temp, or all the time. You may or may not be able to fix the damage by removing any coating over the traces and soldering across the cracked circuit traces.

(The original DIMM ram, the original SDram, DDR ram, DDR2 ram, and DDR3 ram modules are all exactly the same length, and all but the first two types have one notch in the bottom of the module, in 3 different places, that matches a bump in the bottom of the right type of ram slot. DIMM ram uses 5 v or 3.3 v, SDram uses 3.3 v, the rest of them each use less voltage than the one before it in the list. There are a other differences between the module types. )

"REPLY 2"80 wire data cables are also easily damaged at either edge if the cable is sharply creased at a fold in the cable."

I did know that those data cables can be damaged easily...."

The wires in the 80 wire cables are smaller in diameter than the ones in the 40 wire cables, and the plastic insulation over the wires is often thinner on the 80 Wire data cables

"REPLY 4When I get the blue screen, it does not automatically reboot. The error message stays on the screen in a "frozen" mode."

Obviously someone at some time has changed the default setting in Windows so that the computer does nor Restart when it encounters a STOP error.

"SITUATION 2"

"Don't use DOS 3.0 or 3.1."

I said Windows 3.0 or 3.1. Windows 3.1 came out in 1992 and requires that Dos 5 or higher has been installed. Relatively few people used Windows 3.0, I never used it; lots of people used Windows 3.1, I did, or 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups) .

"Answer: File created with <ME cannot be read by >ME OS in NTFS partition format."

".... 80 Gigs of information would be seen as, "SGR&HE&H(G)#_#*J)_W" when they remained on the same hd, but only the OS changed,..."

I searched this topic using "80" and "same" and I found NO MENTION of the two operating systems being on the same physical hard drive until your last post, response 29.

All drives in Windows, or any operating system, are logical (software) drives, but the word logical is usually omitted.

If a physical hard drive has only one partition, then when you refer to a (logical) drive in the operating system on the physical drive, you're also referring to the one physical hard drive it's on.

When the physical hard drive has more than one parition, the one physical hard drive has two or more (logical) drives for it in the operating system.

I suspect you've confused things and the the (logical) drive partition the garbled characters showed up for was by itself on a physical hard drive, and it most likely had a problem with it's data cable connection.

For 2000 and up, drive letters assigned to (logical) drives in Windows are assigned in the order the partitions were created in the same operating installation, according to which drive letters were available at the time, in alphabetical order.

E.g. Two drive letters for (logical) drives that are in sequence alphabetically that are for partitions on hard drives are not necessarily on the same physical hard drive.

The original drive letter assignments can be changed in Disk Management, except for the drive letter assigned to the partition Windows is booting from.

Also, ME and previous uses different rules for assigning drive letters than 2000 and up uses.

For Win 95 and up to ME, e.g. two drive letters for (logical) drives that are in sequence alphabetically that are for partitions on hard drives are not necessarily on the same physical hard drive if there is more than one physical hard drive.

Type: dxdiag in the Run box, press Enter - see if yours is 9.29.1974 at the bottom of the first page. .......

James T Kirk can't install at least two of those updates because he does not have SP3 updates installed.

He installed a third party version of DirectX 10 for XP instead, which Microsoft has no support for. He's getting DirectX errors for a game after having done that, that are NOT showing up in the default log file Microsoft's DirectX versions make.

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